Airport Board members are expected to vote on a staff recommendation to outsource parking operations to Chicago-based Standard Parking, which runs airport parking in Chicago, Atlanta, Kalamazoo, Traverse City, Flint and Saginaw.

The move is expected to save between $1.5 million and $1.9 million over five years, but it also means 19 union-represented Kent County employees would have to reapply for jobs that are very likely to have considerably less pay and benefits.

Depending on years of seniority, airport parking attendants who staff toll booths, and parking agents who do maintenance and assist customers can make between $14 to $19 an hour, not including tips. Those jobs also come with nearly a 33 percent medical and fringe benefit package.

“This is probably one of the tougher decisions I’ve had to make in a long time,” said airport board member and Kent County Commissioner Dick VanderMolen. “It ended up being something we just needed to do because of the cost savings.”

Airport Director Jim Koslosky said the decision was tough because union leaders offered wage concessions that would have reduced the hourly pay rate to around $13 an hour, saving about $135,000 a year. But, even factoring in the wage concessions, airport staff determined that going with the private company would still result in a net savings of $1.5 million over five years. Without the wage concessions, the switch would save $1.9 million over five years.

“There’s a personal side of this thing and I get that, believe me, I’ve known a lot of these folks nearly 20 years,” Koslosky said. “On the other hand, is it our job to subsidize positions?”

Koslsoky said as it stands now, airport parking employees pay and benefits is “out of line” with the cost of doing business in the rest of the market. Mainly because the UAW 2600 employee union that represents them has negotiated contracts over the year on behalf of thousands of general Kent County employees, based on seniority and not specific job descriptions.

Parking agent Kevin Healy believes airport officials are “turning a blind eye” to the fact that many long-term employees may not be re-hired, or at best will be offered minimum wages and benefits.

“They knew what (salary and benefits) they were negotiating all those years and they said fine,” said Healy, who has been at the airport almost 10 years and makes $17.21 an hour. “There was no firearm pointed at anybody’s heads. All the sudden now they change their minds.”

Parking attendant Cherri Westhouse, who makes $16.71 an hour in the job she had a little over 11 years, said airport and union leaders did not give parking employees a fair shot at continuing to negotiate to keep their jobs. Westhouse said airport leaders may be saving money, but they are sacrificing well-seasoned, experienced employees for a likely lower-paid and more part-time, temporary staff.

“We are a solid group of employees that have performed and done whatever they have asked of us during the chaos (of the parking ramp construction),” Westhouse said. “We have had customers (swearing at us), and worked under some extenuating circumstances, and we bucked up through it all for the greater good.”

Jack Ricchiuto, Standard Parking’s executive vice president of the airport division, said if the contract is approved, the company will hire a mix of full-time and part-time employees.

“Everybody out there is going to have an opportunity to continue on with us if they want,” Ricchiuto said.

Koslosky said under the contract, the airport would pay Standard Parking a set management fee out of parking revenues and the company would be responsible for all operations and staffing. If approved, the plan calls for the company to take over operations on March 1.

Ricchiuto said the company has a long history of transitioning employees when they taking over parking operations, as they did recently at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.

“The transition here we would expect would be smooth,” Ricchiuto said. “We’ve been managing parking at airports for over 50 years.”